Overview
- In a letter to War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, the attorneys general request investigations into National Science Foundation and National Academies funding and urge consideration of suspending or disbarring NASEM from federal funds.
- The Federal Judicial Center removed the climate chapter from its online manual, while NASEM has kept the chapter available on its website and NSF has not called for a retraction.
- NASEM President Marcia McNutt told Montana’s attorney general’s office the manual, including the climate chapter, will remain accessible on the Academy’s site.
- The NSF awarded $874,752 to the National Academies to produce the Reference Manual of Scientific Evidence, a project developed in coordination with the Federal Judicial Center.
- The AGs cite the Environmental Law Institute’s Climate Judiciary Project and records of judge seminars in Napa Valley and Palm Beach, while ELI says its programs aim to help judges evaluate evidence and do not advise rulings; the letter bears 24 state signatures and notes recent NASEM funding from DOT ($84 million), DOE ($7 million), and the War Department ($33 million).